Boring Sponge Research Articles

Bioerosion of intertidal limestone, Co. Clare, Eire — 3: Zonation, process and form

Scanning electron microscope photographs show that perforation by boring algae was the dominant agency in bioerosion in the mid-intertidal, with lichen penetration occurring in the upper intertidal and sponge boring in the lower. Chemical data showed that dissolution was possible but SEM observations suggested that it was of limited importance, dominating micro-surface form only in pools and the lower intertidal if algal and other biological covers were absent. Abrasion was also only locally important. Meso-scale form is interpreted in terms of the vertical distribution of bioerosive organisms, as influenced by the presence or absence of structural benches: slopes occurring within a bioerosive zone were dominated by forms produced by the particular organisms present.

Radiaxial Calcite in Lower Miocene Strata, Subsurface Enewetak Atoll

ABSTRACT Radiaxial calcite is abundant in Lower Miocene strata, 377-819 m deep on Enewetak Atoll. These radiaxial crystals have equant, bladed, and fibrous morphologies and occur as isopachous crusts 0.05-2.0 mm thick. Radiaxial terminations consist of fibrous subcrystals bundled together into larger acute, obtuse, or rounded shapes. Enewetak radiaxial calcite ranges from clear to very inclusion-rich. Most inclusions are microcavities caused by organic infestations (Videtich 1985). Alternating bands of inclusion-rich and inclusion-poor calcite mimic existing termination patterns. Radiaxial calcites fill intergranular pores, sponge borings, fractures, and aragonite molds. Aragonite has been pervasively dissolved from the Lower Miocene strata containing radiaxial calcite. Banded radiaxial calcit can be traced from intergranular pores into aragonite molds. Radiaxial calcites have a mean magnesium concentration of 3.2 mole % MgCO3 with a range from 1.6 to 11.1 mole % MgCO3. Inclusion-rich bands and more deeply buried radiaxial calcite tend to have lower magnesium concentrations. Enewetak radiaxial calcite has 13C values of +1.3 to +2.5 (PDB) and 18O values of -1.8 to +0.4 (PDB). Petrographic and stable isotopic data are consistent with precipitation of radiaxial calcite in its present form directly from seawater. Precipitation of radiaxial calcite after aragonite dissolution indicates precipitation distinctly after deposition, probably in a burial environment. Dissolution of aragonite by deep marine water is suggested by: 1) abundant marine cement associated with aragonite dissolution; 2) a lack of meteoric cements associated with aragonite dissolution; and 3) no evidence of subaerial exposure in Lower Miocene strata between 400 and 819 m. Modern Pacific Ocean water is undersaturated with respect to aragonite at depths where aragonite dissolution is observed (375-850 m). Tidal fluctuations and temperature profiles indicate that Lower Miocene strata containing radiaxial calcite are in open communication With modern Pacific Ocean water. Therefore, aragonite dissolution and radiaxial cementation are interpreted as having occurred in seawater (undersaturated with respect to aragonite) circulating through the atoll. Variations in magnesium concentration in Enewetak radiaxial calcite may be the result of original heterogeneity or differential loss of magnesium during later diagenesis in seawater. The first alternative is preferred. Precipitation of radiaxial calcite at different rates (at different degrees of saturation) could cause variable magnesium concentrations. More deeply buried radiaxial calcite may have precipitated more slowly in deeper, less supersaturated water, resulting in lower magnesium concentrations. Likewise, slower rates of precipitation may have resultedin organic infestations and lower magnesium concentrations in inclusion-rich bands. Enewetak radiaxial calcites suggest that two factors might be critical to development of radiaxial fabric: 1) precipitation at fluctuati g rates, and 2) formation in waters undersaturated with respect to aragonite.

Parasites of Eastern Oysters from Subtidal Reefs in a Louisiana Estuary with a Note on Their Use as Indicators of Water Quality

A 12-month parasitological study in-volved examination of 1,242 eastern oysters,Crassostrea virginica, from two hydrologically different subtidal reefs in Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana. No evidence of morbidity attributed to infection with the protozoanPerkinsus marinus was detected among oysters at either site. Most oysters from the higher salinity site had shells infested with boring sponges,Cliona truitti. Oysters from both sites harbored infections with sporocysts and cercariae of the digenetic trematode,Bucephalus cuculus. However, average monthly incidence of infection was less than 0.5%.

Biodegradation of temperate-water skeletal carbonates by boring sponges on the Scott shelf, British Columbia, Canada

Boring sponges are a major agent of shell destruction and, in the process, an important contributor of fine-grained carbonate detritus in temperate skeletal carbonate deposits on Scott shelf, northwestern Vancouver Island. Intensive boring is encouraged by the generally low rates of carbonate production and sedimentation. Skeletal grains become considerably weakened by sponge boring and break preferentially along the directions of sponge-excavated tunnels and galleries within the shell. Boring also facilitates shell dissolution by significantly increasing the surface area—weight ratio of shells and by breaking down the organic matrix of shells. The large aragonitic bivalves Glycymeris and Humilaria appear especially susceptible to sponge biodegradation and have become thoroughly bored and corroded within about 1000 years in ambient shelf waters; thus, their preservation potential is low. Selective loss of aragonitic biota from ancient cool-water shelf skeletal carbonate deposits is anticipated and is evident in many temperate-latitude occurrences of New Zealand Cenozoic limestones.

Substrate Destruction and Sediment Production by the Boring Sponge Cliona Caribbaea on Grand Cayman Island

ABSTRACT The boring sponge Cliona caribbaea is ubiquitous on the shallow terraces around Grand Cayman Island, British West Indies, occurring as brown sheets covering and growing over both live corals and hard substrate. Throughout the zone of the radial grooves, on the southwest corner of Grand Cayman, C. caribbaea covered 5% of the total bottom area between -1 and -10 m. Values up to 10% occurred commonly. Lateral extension rates were 4 cm/yr. The sponge removes an average of 20% (up to 45%) of the substrate, which has an average specific gravity of 1.7. Conservative estimation of typical rates of substrate removal yields 8 kg/m2/yr, a value of about double the typical rates of reef calcification. The silt produced by the sponge is rapidly transported downslope.

Fossil Demospongia

Demospongia have persisted as a major class of sponges since inception of the record of the phylum in the Cambrian. The class includes about 95% of all sponges in modern seas and all of the known freshwater forms, as well. These sponges occupy environments that range from warm, shallow subtidal, high energy to quiet, cold oceanic deeps. Demosponges range from exposed tide pool forms to cryptic dwellers and include the only boring sponges.

Sequence and style in scleractinian coral preservation in reefs and associated facies

Studies of reefs and proximal facies in the Pleistocene of East Africa, and in the Tertiary and Miocene of Bahrain yield predictable sequences of coral sediment distribution patterns. These can be sub-divided into micro-facies ranging from the supratidal to at least −33 m. Many of these suites are comparable with facies found today around Heron Island, on the Australian Great Barrier Reef, upon which a series of facies and fabric models are reconstructed. In depths of less than −15 m five main types of facies-linked preservational styles of corals are recognised and their chemical properties are analysed experimentally: (1) essentially unaltered; (2) red-algal encrusted; (3) moldic rhodoliths after sponge borings; (4) intensely endolithically bored intertidal debris; and (5) sterile, internally zoned, leached and abraded skeletons from the strand-line. These represent a linear sequence from off-shore to the storm ridge, which are modelled into transgressive and regressive cycles. The probability of their preservation and the relative proportion of their products, from any one time interval, increase in a landward direction. Scleractinian standards are established by tracing six taxonomically distinguishable groups represented amongst Astrocoeniina, Fungiina and Faviina in the quasi-fossil strandline shingle to their origins. Each coral or coral-fragment acquires a distinct suite of epibionts on the host's death, and undergoes characteristic chemical alteration related to its micro-environment. Consequently, the same genus develops various modifications reflecting its history of postmortem transport prior to ultimate burial. Thus, the chemical integrity of the skeleton never remains completely intact, as those specimens that are not subject to encrustation and the influences of endo- and epilithic biota are the more susceptible to diagenetic exchange with percolating pore waters. Preferred pathways for interstitial trace-element enrichment are detected by means of dosing the sea-water with uranium: these are best developed at skeletal margins and along trabecular axes in sterilised specimens. The applicability of these data to bore-hole records is tested by reference to the Heron Island core log. While the implications for the analysis of diagenetically advanced material is demonstrated by Jurassic and Carboniferous examples, these data have profound implications for assessing the reliability of isotope geochemistry and radiometric dating.

Middle Ordovician (Chazy Group) cavity-dwelling boring sponges

Microcavities in lower Middle Ordovician bryozoan mounds from the Laval Formation (Chazy Group) near Montreal, Quebec contain evidence that endolithic (boring) sponges were present. Ramose borings with scalloped walls and swellings resembling endolithic sponge galleries, faceted carbonate grains similar to modern sponge chips, and siliceous spicules both in situ on the cavity wall or roof and in the sediment, all point to the activities of endolithic sponges in the hard substrate of the wall and roof.Coelobiontic (cavity-dwelling) endolithic sponges therefore infested cavities in skeletal mounds and reefs in the Middle Ordovician and appear to have exploited the cavity habitat very soon after the appearance of metazoan skeletal reefs in the Ordovician.

Lower Cambrian cavity-dwelling endolithic (boring) sponges

In the Lower Cambrian Forteau Formation (middle Bonnia–Olenellus zone) of southern Labrador, cavities in archaeocyath patch reefs contain preserved coelobiontic endolithic sponges. Scallops and carbonate chips produced by sponge boring, spicules, and preserved endolithic sponge body fossils all point to the presence of endolithic sponges in Lower Cambrian reef cavities.The oldest previously described endolithic sponges are Early Ordovician in age and the oldest previously known reef interior bioerosion is Middle Ordovician in age. The presence of endolithic sponges in reef cavities of the Forteau Formation therefore extends both the record of endolithic sponges and of reef interior bioerosion from the Ordovician to the upper Lower Cambrian.

Carbonate Facies of Sierra Gomez, Chihuahua, Mexico: ABSTRACT

Sierra Gomez, approximately 20 km east of Aldama, Mexico, consists of approximately 500 m of folded and thrusted middle Cretaceous massive to thin-bedded mudstones and wackestones. Thin-bedded units are generally laminated and show local soft-sediment deformation. The laminated carbonates are dark-gray, with some bedded, black chert and contain gastropods, oysters, and the bivalve Corbula. Massive units are generally dark-gray to tan, with chert nodules and stylolites, and contain rudists, oysters, corals, and gastropods. The silicified megafauna includes abundant bivalves such as radiolitid and toucasid rudists, Ostrea sp., Corbula sp., Granocardium sp., and several other genera. At least five species of gastropods have been found that include at least two species of Turritella and Heliocryptus planorbis. Abundant corals as well as worm encrustations and sponge borings (Clinos) are also recorded. These limestones have been described as basinal facies of the Aurora Limestone. A significant portion of the megafauna has apparently not been transported. Shallow-water deposition is also indicated by the presence of rudists in apparent growth position. Normal marine conditions are established by the presence of the stenohaline coelenterates. End_of_Article - Last_Page 766------------

Microbial and Invertebrate Endolithic Assemblages from Late Cretaceous Belemnite Rostra: ABSTRACT

Thick-shelled oysters, belemnoids, and terebratuloids from the Upper Cretaceous Navesink and Mt. Laurel Formations of the New Jersey Coastal Plain show an abundant, diverse, and well-preserved assemblage of microbial and invertebrate borings. Macroscopic examination of invertebrate skeletons reveals large sponge, bivalve, gastropod, and annelid worm borings. Smaller borings in Belemnitella americana were resin-embedded and studied by SEM after acid dissolution of the rostrum skeleton. On the basis of morphology, size, and distribution patterns of the resin casts, at least a dozen borehole types can be recognized. The largest borings revealed by SEM (small microborings > 1 mm) include acrothoracian barnacles, clionid sponges, and phoronids(?). Mesoborings (100 to 1,000 µ) include bryozoans, clionid sponges, and some large unidentified branched algal(?) tubes. Most microborings cover the range of 1 to 100 µ and include branched tubes and bags of algal and fungal origin. The microborings are the most common and uniformly distributed members of the assemblage. End_of_Article - Last_Page 685------------

Ultrastructure of cells associated with excavation of calcium carbonate substrates by boring sponges

Boring sponges excavate calcium carbonate substrates by chemical and mechanical methods. The chemical phase of excavation is accomplished at the cellular level by a localized secretion (possibly an acid or an enzyme) at the cell-substrate interface (Cotte, 1902; Nassonow, 1883, 1924; Warburton, 1958; Rützler & Rieger, 1973; Cobb, 1969, 1971, 1975). Chemical etching detaches a chip of calcium carbonate (about 40–60 µm diameter) which is then mechanically removed from the substrate through the sponge tissue and out through the excurrent canal system. Only 2–3% of the substrate is dissolved by the etching cells (Rützler & Rieger, 1973), while the rest is removed as characteristically shaped chips. Recent studies of the mechanism of sponge boring have denned (using light microscopy) the spatial relationships sponge cells establish with the substrate (Cobb, 1971), identified (using transmission electron microscopy) the cell type (etching cell) responsible for chemical etching (Rützler & Rieger, 1973), and described (using scanning electron microscopy) the architectural nature of substrate destruction by sponges (Cobb, 1969, 1971, 1975; Rützler & Rieger, 1973; Pomponi, 1976, 1977, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Miami).

Microbial alteration of Bahamian deep‐sea carbonates

ABSTRACTAn analysis of microborings within sediment and hardground samples collected from the Northwest Providence Channel and the western margin of the Little Bahama Bank was conducted to characterize the endolithic assemblage present, to examine the role of microboring organisms in the alteration of deep‐sea carbonates, and to evaluate the palaeoecologic potential of the aphotic microboring assemblage found. Samples examined in this study were collected at depths ranging from 210 to 1450 m. The microboring assemblage was found to contain: (a) filamentous fungal borings of five distinct types, (b) a 1.0 × 2.5 μm vermicular form of fungal or bacterial origin, (c) an 8‐12 μm tubular, branching form of probably fungal origin, (d) a subapically branched form considered to be fungal, (e) a spinate form of uncertain affinity and (f) sponge borings. Three of these forms are known only from the deep‐marine environment; the remainder are also known from shallow‐marine sediments found well within the photic zone.Both carbonate sediments and lithified hardgrounds are highly altered through the activity of endolithic organisms. Infestation of individual skeletal fragments by microborers may be so extensive as to produce heavily bored envelopes resembling those previously reported to occur only under shallow‐marine conditions. Although the geological ranges of these microborings remain to be established, the presence of such an aphotic assemblage, coupled with the absence of photosynthetic algal borings, could provide a valuable tool in palaeoecological studies. Other potential applications include the determination of turbidite sediment sources and the establishment of relative water depths for the formation of hardground surfaces.

Studies of the Southern Oyster Borer, Thais haemastoma

Original work was carried on at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries Laboratory on Apdachicoh Bay from August 1935 to April 1936. Since then observations have been made in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Five papers on specific aspects of the biology of the animal have been written since on this and other predatory gastropods. Here all commentaries are drawn together and unpublished matter is presented. The name Thais haemastoma is used because separations based upon the rugosity of the shells do not hold up. Perfectly smooth and very rugose specimens are found in the same bays, with various shell characteristics being related to various oyster reefs on which they grow. Radular movement is by the band-over-pulley method suggested by Husley (1853), Herrick (1906) Gunter (1936) and Carriker (1943). Evidence is presented showing that Thais can kill oysters without mechanical injury, presumbly by some paralytic material. About one-third of the oysters are opened by large Thais without any boring whatsoever. Smaller Thais are more prone to bore complete holes into the shell cavity of the prey. In Apalachicola Bay large Thais may eat one oyster about every 8 days and it was calculated that on St. Vincent’s Bar 24 million adult oysters could be killed in a year. The resting gonads consist of a thin layer of tissue on the body over the liver and they are lavender-grey in the males and yellowish-orange in the females. They begin to thicken in January and the color intensifies. Egg laying takes place from April to July on the Gulf coast. No young or small Thais were seen in Apalachicola Bay probably because of heavy freshwater drainage in the springs of 1934 and 1935. Several hundred Thais were measured and each month the length frequency mode was at 80.0 mm. The largest known specimen of Thais, a Louisiana specimen, was 103 mm long. A heavy kill of Thais took place in the spring of 1935 and no adults survived in Apalachicola Bay ezcept on Hiles’ Bar near Indian Pass, which is close to the ocean. The Thais seemed to perish when salinity dropped to 9 / o ~ and stayed that way for several weeks. Both oysters and mussels survived at salinities lower than Thais could withstand. Thais shells are extremely hard and are difficult to break with a hammer. Nevertheless, they are cracked by stone crabs. They are also invaded by commensals such as the boring clam Diplothyra smithii, the annelid worm Polydora websteri, and the boring sponge Cliona. In Louisiana a so-called conch line was established by St. Amant (1938)owhen it was found that adult conchs did not get much beyond the areain Barataria Bay where the salinity fell to around 20 loo. This was confirmed later by J. G. Mackin and Gunter at about 18O/oo, but has not been published. It has also been found that baby %onchs are found landward of this line. It was found by experiments that conchs were generally killed by water registering 9 /OO salinity and, additionally, that snails taken from low-salinity water survived transfer to still lower salinities or lived longer even in lethally low salinities than those coming from higher salinities. Attempts to trap conchs on oyster beds were unsuccessful because no baits more attractive than the surrounding oysters and mussels could be found. The conchs’ activity stopped at temperatures of 10°C and below.

Probable sponge borings in Lower Ordovician limestone of Sweden

Endolithic borings attributable to sponges, hitherto unknown before Devonian time, are common in trilobite fragments in Scandinavian Lower to Middle Ordovician limestones. Most borings consist of branching, anastomosing tubes, approximately 25 µm in diameter, and closed end tubes, 50 to 150 µm long and 20 to 40 µm in diameter. The tube network may close and thereby form major chambers. The small borers were probably most successful in breaking down carbonate particles where rates of bio-genie carbonate sedimentation were low.

Shell Borings in Upper Miocene-Pliocene Tamiami Formation, Collier County, Florida: ABSTRACT

Borings of common marine organisms such as algae, bivalves, polychaetes, and echinoids are potentially useful in sedimentologic and paleoecologic studies. A variety of spectacular shell borings is preserved in the upper Miocene-Pliocene Tamiami Formation exposed in Collier County, Florida. Paleontology of the richly fossiliferous Tamiami Limestone is difficult to study because leaching has selectively removed aragonitic shells. However, this selective shell removal has revealed excellently preserved shell borings as mud-filled molds. Characteristic, interconnecting, subspherical galleries of clionid sponges are the most common borings. The ichnogenus Entobia is applied to fossil borings similar to modern clinoid sponges. Essentially all of the thick-shelled bivalves, as w ll as many of the thinner shelled species show evidence of sponge borings. Borings of two polychaete worms are also abundant in Tamiami fossils. Excavations similar to those produced by the genus Polydora are the most common, and the second appears unlike modern forms and is tentatively placed in the ichnogenus Meandropolydora. Most thick shells contain distinctive borings of two species of bivalves. These borings have a calcareous lining, and are similar in form to borings of the modern mytilid genus Lithophaga. The Tamiami Limestone has been described as of shallow-water origin, because of the contained oysters, pectens, and echinoderms. Information derived from the abundant shell borings is consistent with this interpretation, indicating a shallow, warm, low-energy environment. End_of_Article - Last_Page 493------------

Modiolusmodiolus(L.) from the Scottish West Coast. I. Biology

Abstract The population structure, seasonal biology and flesh content of Modiolus from three different subtidal habitats were studied. In an area of strong currents recruitment is normal, and the population is relatively young. In an adjacent, quiet water habitat recruitment is negligible and the population consists of ageing animals which suffer extensive physical damage from the boring sponge Cliona celata Grant. In the population from deeper water (13 m) there has been no recruitment for a numb~r of years, and the population is dominated by old animals which grow to a large size and remain in apparently good condition, but suffer from possible senile changes. There is also a notable incidence of tumours and pearl formation not found elsewhere. Flesh content is related primarily to the gonad size. There is a well defined gonadial cycle in the populations from the fast current and deep water habitats. The third population was consistently poor. The evidence indicates that there is a spring and late summe...

Significance of the Boring Sponge Cliona for the Origin of Fine Grained Material of Carbonate Sediments

The marine siliceous boring sponge Cliona boring into carbonate substrates of biogenic or non-biogenic origin produces characteristic particles of 15 to 100 micron in size. These particles were quantitatively determined without difficulties by grain size analysis using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). In the Persian Gulf (Iranian coast) and in the Northern Adriatic Sea (Istrian coast) the portion of the fine grained material produced by Cliona is 2 to 3% of total sediment. In the lagoon of Fanning Island/Line Islands (Pacific) this portion amounts to 30% of the total sediment.

Subsea Cementation of Shallow British Honduras Reefs: ABSTRACT

Contemporary subsea cementation is restricted to specific zones in shallow British Honduras barrier and atoll reefs. On the southern half of the barrier reef and on Glovers Atoll, cementation occurs only on the seaward margins of the reefs, the reef flat, and spur and groove structure. On the reef flat, coral rubble and skeletal sand are cemented to a hard pavement 10-100 m wide. Coral fronds from the pavement have a radiocarbon age of about 450 years B.P. The cores of projecting spurs, a growth frame of coral and Millepora, locally are bound with a mortar of cemented skeletal sand, forming marble-hard limestone. Coral fronds lying loose on groove floors between spurs contain well-cemented geopetals, indicating lithification of internal sediment in place. Carbonate cement is present (1) in intraskeletal voids of reef-building organisms, (2) between skeletal sand grains that form the rubble mortar and that partly fill the growth frame, and (3) within fine skeletal sand and carbonate mud geopetals of mollusk and sponge borings. The localization of subsea cementation on the reef flat and seaward faces of the British Honduras marginal reefs significantly enhances their wave resistance. A similar localization of early cementation by magnesium-calcite in ancient reef complexes would have reduced porosity and permeability and increased the amount of magnesium locally available for dolomitization. This facies-specific diagenesis would have directed subsequent subaerial and late diagenesis, which in turn determines the quality of reef reservoirs. End_of_Article - Last_Page 786------------

Borers in the Shell of the Sea Scallop, Placopecten magellnnicus

Shells of the sea scallop, Placopecten magellanictis Gmelin from Newfoundland waters were examined for borers by direct stereomicroscopic and X-ray radio-graphic means. Young shells are first attacked by the boring sponge, Cliona vastifica, and the spionid polychaetes, Polydora websteri and Polydora concharum. The former settles almost exclusively on the lower valve, but as it grows it often spreads to the upper valve via the hinge region. The spionids settle on the upper valve or occasionally on the periphery of the lower valve. Older shells are bored by the cirratulid polychaete, Dodecaceria concharum, which usually settles in empty Polydora burrows and enlarges them as they grow. The bivalve, Hiatella arctica, settles in Cliona holes. The burrows formed by the borers can be recognized on the radiographs. However, the identity of the present inhabitant cannot be predicted with accuracy because the original borer is often replaced by nestlers. The rale of growth was documented by making sequential radiographs at monthly intervals from May to October 1968. Rate of growth in all forms appears to be temperature-dependent. The water temperature increased from 1°C in May up to 18°C in August. Polydora concharum and P. websteri grew more rapidly from July to October than in Mayand June, while Cliona and Dodecaceria only grew during the months of July to October.